Discovery of a Hypervelocity L Subdwarf at the Star/Brown Dwarf Mass Limit

Abstract

We report the discovery of a high-velocity, very low-mass star or brown dwarf whose kinematics suggest it is unbound to the Milky Way. CWISE J124909.08+362116.0 was identified by citizen scientists in the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 program as a high-proper-motion ( μ = 0.″9 yr ^−1 ) faint red source. Moderate-resolution spectroscopy with Keck/NIRES reveals it to be a metal-poor early L subdwarf with a large radial velocity (−103 ± 10 km s ^−1 ), and its estimated distance of 125 ± 8 pc yields a speed of 456 ± 27 km s ^−1 in the Galactic rest frame, near the local escape velocity for the Milky Way. We explore several potential scenarios for the origin of this source, including ejection from the Galactic center ≳3 Gyr in the past, survival as the mass donor companion to an exploded white dwarf, acceleration through a three-body interaction with a black hole binary in a globular cluster, and accretion from a Milky Way satellite system. CWISE J1249+3621 is the first hypervelocity very low-mass star or brown dwarf to be found and the nearest of all such systems. It may represent a broader population of very high-velocity, low-mass objects that have undergone extreme accelerations.

Keywords

• Globular star clusters
• Hypervelocity stars
• L subdwarfs
• Metallicity
• Type Ia supernovae
• Low mass stars